On March 11, 1959, Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun†opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre at 243 West 47th Street Between Broadway and 8th Avenue in Manhattan.
“What I need an alarm clock for when I got you? Only problem is, I can’t just hit a button and turn you off.â€
Ms. Hansberry’s words that night were uttered by Sidney Poitier, who audiences knew from the screen version of the musical “Porgy and Bess.”
Nearly fifty-five years later, symmetry between that production and the one being directed by Kenny Leon for 14 weeks this spring is hard to ignore. Denzel Washington will play Walter Lee on the same stage in the Barrymore Theatre. Those opening lines, with Mr. Washington’s familiar cadence, are bound to get a ton of laughter and warm the house of 1,058. And today, a black man’s dignity and real questions regarding the validity of his humanity are as pertinent as they have ever been, what with the African American president’s new initiative to invest in the lives of young black men — a kind of social intervention precipitated in part by the unpunished killing of a black boy on a Sunday night in central Florida. Ms. Hansberry, you’ll remember, was born in Chicago –just like Emmett Till.
The cultural relevance of the play’s central question — What happens to a dream deferred? — seems no more lost on Mr. Leon than it did with Ms. Hansberry.
(Inevitably, someone will ask if we interviewed Denzel — we did not. But he did whiz by Mr. Leon and myself in mid-conversation. He said something inaudible and sauntered away, George Jefferson style.)
BlackEnterprise.com: The last time you directed Denzel Washington was in Fences at the Cort Theatre and it was critically-acclaimed and a great success –you walked away feeling good seeing him in the theatre doing August Wilson even though Troy is so prickly. I’m wondering if you see any similarities between Troy Maxson and Walter Lee and if so, how do you explain it? Is there an approach to breaking down Walter Lee for this audience?
Kenny Leon: Actually, you know, Denzel and I had a conversation about that. Troy Maxson is fictionally in 1957, Walter Lee Younger is 1959. So they’re right about the same period. We had a lengthy talk about this question: Is there some Walter Lee in Troy? Is there some Troy in Walter Lee? I think they’re similar, except they’re very different in terms of what Walter Lee can see every day chauffeuring people around. It’s restaurants, banks. But it’s also what’s in the newspaper, as well as conversations he hears in the car about business. He could see more of the American Dream. Troy Maxson was driving a garbage truck and so his vision was more limited. But Walter’s vision was greater. So much so that he had the wherewithal to come home and tell his son that he’s going to build a world for him and that one day he’s gonna go to the best college in the world!
With both plays, you keep asking yourself, ‘What happens to a dream deferred?’ If you apply it to Troy Maxson and Walter Lee as it relates to their relationship with their sons, you can certainly see the difference. But the main difference is that Walter Lee certainly has a larger dream. But they’re both men who are frustrated at being limited by their race in America.
I always wanted to ask you how do you approach directing such complex character traits with these major characters, combined with the fact that Denzel is operating at such a high level, and has so much experience — where do you enter personally with how to direct someone like him?
Well, we talk about who that character is and how some of these challenges manifest themselves. So if you’re seeing the world everyday, but you have to come to a one-bedroom apartment with three women and a young kid, that’s going to suffocate you. That anger has to go somewhere. We kind of just keep exploring and we let Denzel kind of lead us there gradually. We let him explore what it feels like walking into this closed-in environment after he’s just come from seeing the world. What if you have an
idea to create a business, but you can’t get that opportunity? It probably manifests itself in everything from the way you eat your breakfast to how you listen to your music to how you storm out of your house — to even the way you sit down and breathe. Fortunately, Denzel is one of the actors in America that can deliver on all of that. He has everything it takes to create a very exciting Walter Lee and all the answers are right there in Lorraine Hansberry’s script. It’s a perfect play.This plays deal with different characters’ notions of the American Dream. It deals with varying ideas and strategy about how to get there, but it really deals poignantly with the men — whether it’s Walter Lee, George Murchison or even Walter Lee’s son, Travis. We had the deaths of Trayvon Martin and more recently Jordan Davis. As a director, do you feel like you have a responsibility to hone in on that given what’s happened so recently?
I think Lorraine Hansberry is exploring just how attainable the American Dream is, and she raises this question of do we all have access. We can see what’s happened in the last ten years with our country having an African American president. Has he and the office of the presidency been respected on all levels? What’s happened with Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis? In many ways, the American Dream has taken a step backwards.
Bryce Jenkins plays Travis in this production. He did a movie with me called “The Watsons Go to Birminghamâ€Â From that portrayal in that film I knew that I wanted him to be Travis. I wanted people to symbolically see and feel Trayvon and Jordan in Walter Lee’s son. That’s why you will see more of a man in Travis than you might in other productions. You’ll see more of that young man that’s soon going to be 17 or 18 years old, and the question is going to become, ‘Well, what does the future hold for him?’ So in many ways I tackled the casting of it thinking that I wanted us to look at Travis through the lens of what it means to be young and black in America right now. That’s why I think this play is going to be even more relevant.
RELATED: The Business of Broadway
You guys lost Diahann Carroll, unfortunately for this production. Are people making too much of what happens when an actor can’t do the production this late in the process? And what in your mind did you lose with her?
I don’t know what people are saying. Diahann Carroll is an amazing American treasure who paved the way for a lot of folks. It was clear to her and me that with the rigors of doing live theater, it just can’t happen; especially when it came to retaining lines — she’s close to 80 years old. We thought she could handle it but we had to be realistic since we’re doing eight shows a week. It’s just too much. But then you bring someone who’s as fierce and strong and exciting as LaTanya, and you don’t miss a beat. It’s just a different show.
Plus, ticket sales are at about $9 million and we don’t predict that’s it’s going to affect the box office. Actually, the show will be just as strong, but strong in a different way because
of what she brings to the table. So I don’t know what people are saying, but I’m very excited. I don’t hear anybody complaining about it. [Laughs.] But inside we’re all excited. We’re working hard and everybody is having a good time.Are people coming to see the stars in the show and then walking away with the story? Are they coming to see the story? Do you care what today’s theatergoer who’s paying to see a Fences or a Raisin in the Sun is hoping to get from the experience?
Well, I think that’s my job. My job as the director is to cast the most talented, available artists. So the fact that Denzel Washington, who started on stage, is available to do a play every three or four years — he’s not doing a play every week [Laughs.] — I want to definitely take advantage of that. I think when people come see it, they’ll not only get Denzel but they’ll get that story in a powerful way. That’s going to encourage them to go to their community theatres or their churches to do “A Raisin in the Sun.” They’ll be reminded of what’s valuable and truthful in the story, and if you can get a cast who can deliver it like the one we have, they’ll remember it for the rest of their life. If they just come to see the star and don’t take anything else away then we’re in trouble.
I think it’s exciting that Denzel even wants to do a play. It’s not like he’s making the kind of money he could be making doing a movie. So there’s got to be other reasons. He wants to be close to our community and close to live people and perfect his craft.
People forget that not everyone can do a play. That’s two hours on stage convincing people that you are who you are. It’s not like making a film.
It sounds like it means a lot to you that people will go home to New Jersey or Kansas City, and say, ‘Hey, we saw ‘Raisin’ and we should do the play right here in our hometown.’
It really does, to be honest with you. And I want to shine a light on Lorraine Hansberry. The way you do that is by getting the best available talent. You can get the whole world to know about it it that way. If you do it with lesser people, then fewer people are going to know about it. That’s just the way it works. I’m doing this Tupac musical because I want to create a spotlight around some of the things that Tupac was saying. So I gotta create it in a way that reflects something positive so that people see him differently. And the hope is that it’ll be done all over the world when it leaves Broadway.
‘A Raisin in the Sun’ begins previews at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on March 8 at 243 W. 47th Street.